Ben's 100% DEET Mosquito, Tick and Insect Repellent, 1.25 Ounce Pump, 3 Count

Product Information

Our testing suggests that when it comes to effectiveness, what matters most is the type and concentration of active ingredient in the repellent. Adults should dispense repellent on their hands to apply to children. Don’t spray repellent onto kids or apply it to their hands. That’s to avoid it getting into their eyes or mouth and avoid applying it to cuts or irritated skin. (Insect repellents with deet should not be used on children younger than 2 months.) The results from the search tool include only skin-applied repellent products registered by EPA. No unregistered products are listed. OLE, although it occurs naturally in the lemon eucalyptus plant, is not an essential oil. It’s refined and concentrated (or sometimes synthesized chemically) for use in commercial bug repellents.

And with deet products, an effective repellent can come in many forms. For example, three wipes made our recommended list. One lotion didn’t score high enough to earn our recommendation but still performed satisfactorily. Frequent reapplication isn’t necessary. Wash your hands after applying and wash off repellent at the end of the day. Most plant-oil-based products we’ve tested—including several containing citronella oil, peppermint oil, soybean oil, or others—have performed poorly. Apply a thin coat to all exposed skin but avoid eyes and mouth, and use sparingly around your ears. You can also spray repellent on top of your clothing but don’t apply it under clothing.At our insect repellent testing lab, we begin by applying a standard dose of repellent to a measured area of skin on our test subjects’ arms. The standard dose is determined from the Environmental Protection Agency’s product testing guidelines.

Half an hour later, this procedure is repeated once, and then again once every hour after that until a repellent fails our test, or until 8 hours have passed since it was applied. We consider a failure to be two confirmed mosquito bites in one 5-minute session inside the cage, or one confirmed bite in each of two consecutive 5-minute sessions. The picture gets a bit murkier when it comes to other active ingredients. We’ve found some sprays that use the active ingredients picaridin or OLE that perform well, and others that don’t. And in a few instances, we’ve found that products containing 20 percent picaridin score well as a spray but not in another form, such as a wipe or lotion. “At the very least, we’re seeing OLE and picaridin fall short of deet,” Regan says.After 5 minutes, the subjects withdraw their arms, then repeat the process by placing their arms into a second pair of cages of disease-free mosquitoes of a different species for another 5 minutes. The subjects then walk around for about 10 minutes to stimulate sweating. That’s to mimic a real-world situation in which users might exercise while wearing repellent. Still, if you want to avoid deet, 20 percent picaridin or 30 percent OLE are your best bets. More Importantly, in our testing, all of the so-called natural repellents—products whose active ingredients are essential oils—earn dismal scores.